Teaching the Bodies of Readers: A Discourse Analysis of Instructional Talk

• In Event: 35.082 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.082-24 - Literacy Research Focused on Young Adolescents

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the performance of reading and becoming literate as a discursive act, which involves linguistic and symbolic features that are evoked when one goes about ‘being’ a reader and ‘doing’ reading. Using discourse analysis, we explore how reading is constructed as an embodied act during fourth and fifth grade reading lessons. Our research question was: How does talk surrounding the physicality of reading and learning to read construct specific versions of what it means to be a reader and read for understanding? We explore implications related to instructional practices at the level of discourse.

Authors

• Jessica Nina Lester, Indiana University

• Rachael Gabriel, University of Connecticut